Oleksandr Syrskyi, a top general in the Ukrainian defense, has been considered the architect of Ukraine’s successful counter-offensive in the Kharkiv region in the fall of 2022. Last week, he made a startling statement in an exclusive interview with Reuters.
In the autumn of 2022, the Ukrainian soldiers had wind in their sails. In a short time, large areas were won back.
Much has happened since then, but Ukraine has not been able to regain the same pace of reconquest on the battlefield. Today, the situation is described by many experts as more deadlocked and a war of positions.
Almost since the day Russia started its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for increased military support from Western countries, in order to further fight back Ukrainian soil.
And promises have come. A number of countries have given money and military equipment, including combat aircraft – which for a long time they were wary of disposing of.
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Waiting for F-16 aircraft, though
Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway had F-16 fighter jets available and these were promised to Ukraine – after the USA gave the green light for their donation in the spring of 2023.
The F-16 aircraft have the benefit of being used on the battlefield in Ukraine. Training Ukrainians to maneuver and maintain the planes has taken time.
In addition, several of the planes had to be repaired before they could be sent off. Two of Norway’s unknown number of donated F16 aircraft were first shipped to Denmark after the New Year, where they will be used in the training of Ukrainian personnel.
How many F-16 aircraft Ukraine will eventually get is unclear, but it has been suggested that it could be up to 100 aircraft.
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Don’t want F-16
Syrskyi now says that the aircraft Ukraine needs to be able to advance further on the battlefield are the American A-10 – in addition to combat helicopters.
– I want to talk about the A-10 planes as an alternative – if they are donated to us. This is not a new type of aircraft, but has proven to be reliable and that it will do in many wars. The aircraft has a wide variety of weapons to destroy targets on the battlefield that can help the soldiers on the ground, says the commander of the ground forces Oleksandr Syrskyi to Reuters.
In addition to A-10 aircraft, Syrskyi says the need for combat helicopters is great.
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– A flight that had expired
Lars Peder Haga is an associate professor at the Norwegian Air Force School. In 2018, among other things, he was involved in preparing the Norwegian Armed Forces’ new doctrine for air operations in 2018. He knows the American aircraft type A-10 well.
Haga can say that the A-10 is an aircraft specially designed to attack targets on the ground. The plane has a partially armored cockpit and a huge machine gun that can be used to shoot armored vehicles to shreds. In addition, the aircraft is designed so that the engines are on top of the aircraft, which provides protection against fire from the ground. The aircraft can also take off and land in fairly rough conditions.
Furthermore, he explains that the F-10 is an aircraft that is basically built to be able to fly low and in an environment where it is shot at with small arms. But it didn’t quite go according to plan.
– It was an aircraft that had expired from the date it was put into service. It didn’t turn out as planned. The threat developed faster than they could produce the planes.
The aircraft, which can carry a very large weapons load and carries modern targeting systems, is still in service with the US Air Force – and has been used in the 1991 Gulf War, in Iraq and in Afghanistan. The common denominator for all the places it has been used is that the threat from the ground there has not been great.
Haga further says that the departments that have operated the planes have had a very high level of competence in supporting ground forces and attacking ground targets.
– Much of what an A-10 can do in terms of attacking ground targets, you can also do that with an F-16. An F-16 won’t be protected against small arms, but you don’t want to use an F-16 in such a way that it becomes a problem, normally, he says.
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– The US is in the process of getting rid of them
The F-10 aircraft thus appear to have played their role for the Americans. New aircraft and tactics have taken over.
– That is why the USA is in the process of getting rid of them, so maybe that is what Syrskyi was thinking about when he gave the interview, that the planes can become available. Ukrainians really can’t afford to be picky. Although the trend in combat aircraft is to try to switch to a multi-role fighter type – something that the Ukrainian Air Force also planned for before the war.
– What will be the disadvantage of getting A-10 aircraft is that you will get the economies of scale that you get with the F-16 to a lesser extent, because there are very many nations that use them.
Never given the green light
He believes that the planes will be able to be equipped with modern weapons and technology, but since the planes are only used by the United States, it will be difficult to obtain spare parts.
Haga also emphasizes that the US itself has not donated a single aircraft to Ukraine, so if the A-10 is to be donated, the US must change course in that area. But should that happen, it will take time.
– Then you would have to start a new training and education course. I haven’t followed very closely what kind of timeline there is for the training of F-16 pilots, but it can quickly take a year or more from a decision being made until they can possibly be operational, he concludes.
2024-01-21 12:38:19
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